Everton's McNeil credits pre-season Coleman chat for goalscoring form

The Everton forward now has four goals in his last six games.

Sun, 29 Sep, 2024 - 13:54

Carl Markham

Everton forward Dwight McNeil has a pre-season chat with captain Seamus Coleman and former Burnley team-mate James Tarkowski to partly thank for his upturn in goalscoring form.

The 24-year-old scored twice just after half-time as his side came from behind in the Premier League for the first time since October 2022 to beat Crystal Palace 2-1 and register their first win of the season.

McNeil, now playing as a number 10 instead of out wide, curled home from 25 yards for the equaliser 77 seconds after the interval before firing past Dean Henderson from Jack Harrison's cross shortly afterwards.

That doubled his tally to four goals from his last six games, already one more than he managed in the whole of last season.

"It's funny because me, Skip (Coleman) and Tarks (Tarkowski) talked in the pre-season about getting my stats up and how I can do that," he said.

"I think it's a lot of different things. A lot of it's mentality, having confidence within myself and when you've got confidence with the lads around you who believe in you and the manager and coaching staff.

"Playing centrally as well, being more involved in the game, has helped get my stats up but there's a long way to go and I know there's a lot of improvement.

"For me I'm happy with what I've got so far but I want more, I want to kick on more. I want to learn more about the game, improve and help the team as best I can.

"I want to help the team impact games as best I can because I want to improve for myself, help the team and see where it takes me.

"But the main thing was getting the three points on the board and the first win of the season at Goodison - but we've got to kick on."

The team were booed off at half-time after another disappointing 45 minutes against a fellow winless team and winger Jesper Lindstrom was the first to pay the price as he was replaced at the interval by Harrison, who made an immediate impact.

Scenes of celebration at the final whistle showed just how important the victory was after taking one point from their first five matches, which included twice conceding two-goal leads to lose 3-2.

"We knew it would be a massive game at home. We got the three points that we needed and now we've just got to step on now going into the game next week (at home to Newcastle)," McNeil added.

"We were playing well in the previous games but not picking up any points and that can be the most frustrating thing.

"But the Premier League is not forgiving. It's all about points on the board. It's a ruthless league.

"We've got to take the performance and keep getting wins."

Things do not get any easier for Palace boss Oliver Glasner as, after taking three points from six matches, they host Liverpool next weekend.

"You roll your sleeves up. Our mentality is great, character is great, we have to get the momentum back and we will try next week against Liverpool," he said.